GI Tags in India: Protecting Farmers, Heritage and Local Products

GS III: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context: The dispute over Unjha jeera and saunf highlights structural weaknesses in India’s Geographical Indication (GI) framework, particularly regarding farmer participation, enforcement, legal remedies and benefit-sharing.

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Key Concerns

• Access Barriers: Language, information and procedural barriers can prevent small and seasonal farmers from filing objections within the prescribed period.
• Lengthy Litigation: After registration, affected producers may face costly and prolonged cancellation proceedings; abolition of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) has further increased dependence on civil courts.
• Weak Enforcement: Ambiguities around authorised users, producers and inspection mechanisms weaken protection against counterfeiting and misuse.
• Limited Producer Participation: Only 42% of registered GIs reportedly have authorised users, leaving many GI tags ineffective at the producer level.
• Poor Benefit-Sharing: Although GI products can command a 20–30% premium, farmers often receive only a small share because of intermediaries, traders and exporters.
• Counterfeiting: Weak monitoring enables fake and imitation products to enter markets, undermining authentic producers and consumer trust.
• Low Awareness: Many certificate holders reportedly lack awareness about how to use GI protection to obtain better prices and market access.

Why GI Tags Matter

• Protects traditional knowledge and cultural heritage
• Prevents geographical misappropriation and counterfeiting
• Creates product differentiation and price premiums
• Strengthens rural livelihoods and producer identity
• Promotes local products in domestic and global markets

Way Forward

• State-led GI enforcement: Establish GI Enforcement Cells within State agricultural departments.
• Digital monitoring: Create an Online GI Monitoring Cell using domain alerts and geo-blocking to tackle online counterfeiting.
• Mandatory inspection: Strengthen ground-level verification and inspection mechanisms rather than leaving them optional.
• Farmer-centric legal remedies: Create faster and affordable mechanisms for urgent injunctions and GI disputes.
• Strengthen producer collectives: Support producer organisations to improve collective bargaining and market access.
• Ensure benefit-sharing: Develop mechanisms ensuring that a larger share of the GI premium reaches actual producers.
• Improve awareness: Provide legal, branding and market-linkage support to GI certificate holders and authorised users.
• Learn from global models: Adapt elements of the EU’s state-led GI enforcement system while tailoring them to India’s institutional context.

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Conclusion

India’s GI regime must move beyond merely registering geographical identities towards ensuring their effective enforcement and equitable economic benefits for the farmers and communities who actually preserve and produce them.

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